Racial Dispute Splits Truth Panel

Blacks Complain Whites Dominating S. African Body

January 22, 1997|By From Tribune News Services.

JOHANNESBURG — Black staff members accused whites Tuesday of hijacking Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, exposing a split in the body that is intended to heal the wounds of South Africa's past.

Senior black officials in the truth commission, some of whom have threatened to resign, complained in writing that they were being undermined and passed over for crucial policy-making jobs.

"Liberals think they can deal with the poor by doing things for them, but they cannot deal with you as an equal. They can't reason with you," said one staffer, Hlengiwe Mkhize, who heads the commission's reparations committee.

The race row broke as the 65-year-old Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop for southern Africa, was recovering from surgery to remove a cancerous prostate gland. He was expected to be off work for at least three more weeks.

His white deputy, Alex Boraine, was named by black officials as among the "clique of liberals" guilty of racism.

Boraine disputed the claims Tuesday, saying many of the commission's most powerful posts are held by blacks. But he acknowledged that the commission, as an institution reflecting South Africa itself, could fall prey to racial disputes.

The truth commission was set up by President Nelson Mandela to investigate apartheid crimes and has the right to grant amnesty to perpetrators who confess in full. Its staffers were deliberately selected to represent all sectors of South African society.

"It would be surprising if there were no tensions in the commission," Boraine said in a statement. "Firstly (it) is a microcosm of South Africa, which itself is experiencing enormous tensions as it recovers from a period of desperate conflict."

Boraine also cited the commission's heavy workload and the emotional demands placed on its staff, who often have to hear harrowing testimony from victims of political violence and dirty tricks used in the undeclared war by the previous apartheid regime against the black liberation movement.

He said high-level talks would be held Jan. 30 to clear the air.

However, Boraine disputed as "nonsense" claims that the top jobs were held by whites, pointing out that the chairman, Tutu, and the heads of the amnesty and reparation committees are black, as is the head of the investigation unit.

As observers expressed concern that the row could harm the work of the truth commission and divert attention from it, an analyst at the traditionally mixed-race University of the Western Cape said it is actually a positive sign.

"I think the truth commission is the best example of the process of reconciliation in this country," said Vernon Seymour of the Center for Southern African Studies.

"There are people from different political, social, moral and religious persuasions all working together toward one goal.

"The mere fact that it has taken more than a year for these tensions to emerge is a good indication that it is working well. The one strand keeping it together is their contribution toward facilitating the reconciliation process in the country."

Seymour said race tensions in South Africa ought to be acknowledged and dealt with speedily where they arise.

"It's a side-effect of dealing with post-apartheid South Africa-- occasionally we are reminded of the past," he added.

Separately, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, James Joseph, on Tuesday tried to quell a dispute over South Africa's proposal to sell arms technology to Syria.

Although Joseph would not comment directly on the plan to sell $650 million in tank-firing systems to Damascus, he said differences of opinion occur between even the strongest of allies.

The U.S. opposes the sale because it says Syria sponsors terrorism, and it fears the sale could upset the Mideast balance of power.